This generation has seen a fairly good mixture of genres, with the shooter seemingly edging out the long-established genre of action adventure for a spot at the head of the gaming table. This is not to say that action adventure has been left in the dust; great titles like Uncharted, Ninja Gaiden, and inFAMOUS have brought many great new things to the genre. But I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the best non-action adventure PS3 titles that would be more engaging—and maybe even more interesting—as action adventure games. Please bear in mind these amazing examples are not in production, and you should repeatedly tell yourself that, otherwise you might go mad from awesomeness.

5. Flower

Admittedly, it took me a while to figure out how to make this into an action adventure game. Eventually, another writer on the site made a tongue-in-cheek remark that I thought might actually be kind of interesting. Of course, I had to make some pretty major modifications to that concept, but I think it's one that could work nonetheless.

Instead of the harmless flower petals drifting through the wind, Flower would have razor-sharp petals of death. The player would get to decide how exactly these petals would fly through the levels, just like in the original title. However, before they begin, each level would include a quick time event with a great ninja battle. How well the player does during this always-changing ninja battle will determine how many petals of death they receive in the level. Instead of growing petals, the player would send these petals of death flying at the enemies that pop up, while trying to protect the contract kill they were hired to take out. Will players be able to finish off their contracts and retire to the tea shop down the road, or will they feel the cold steel of The Flowers of the Assassin?

4. DC Universe Online

This one seems like a no-brainer. Take the MMO element of DCU Online and throw it away, but still allow players to explore this open world setting and interact with some of their favorite heroes and villains. DC Universe is already practically an action adventure title, but what separates it from delivering that action adventure one-two punch is the inclusion of other players. Sure, most people have fond memories of World of Warcraft (or not), and getting to experience an adventure in the DC universe with friends was a major draw at launch. But now, several months later, people are just standing around the lobbies, power thrusting and talking smack. Once outside the game's hubs, that smack-talking and power boasting is quickly put to test, usually with the worst of consequences. Just remove Online from the title of this already well-put-together game and you'd have a very solid action adventure experience without all the meandering griefers.

Take everything that we love about the Gran Turismo series and add one crucial element: Fast and Furious' Vin Diesel. Allowing for the smooth and clean graphics associated with Gran Turismo to mesh with the world of street racing could be instant gold.

The gameplay would be reminiscent of Burnout titles. Utilizing takedowns as the action sequences, players would find themselves being chased by everything fans have come to accept from the movie franchise–police, rival street racers, drug lords, and the likes. The paper thin plot would allow the sim players the same experience as before, except now with more cinematics and a much grander purpose in upgrading a vehicle or boosting (going to the garage) another car. Dive into the world of Gran Turismo: Fastest Fury.

2. LittleBigPlanet

Everyone loves little Sackboy. They love dressing him up in the millions of costumes. They love taking him on his little platforming adventures, as well as the adventures that the community has put together. There's no denying that the community of LBP and the simplistic approach to building levels is the biggest draw to the franchise. Too often I have heard much talk about how the concept is fantastic, but I normally get bored after only a few hours of playing.

Well, imagine if Sackboy's adventure were a little more action-oriented. Instead of flailing his arms around, you would have to move the control sticks in certain ways to accomplished specific maneuvers. Each emotional state of Sackboy would also change the abilities you possess. The costumes you wear would also grant new abilities to help you to surmount the challenges of the level you are on. Of course, the community would still be able to craft levels to their imaginations' content, but they would have the ability to choose the different sets of abilities players were allowed to use in each level. Keeping the core of what makes LittleBigPlanet so great while enhancing it with abilities and fighting moves only ensures that LittleBigFist would be a great game as well.

1. Heavy Rain

A lot of people think that Heavy Rain should have been more than an "interactive movie." I don't reside in that camp, but I can acknowledge that the game could have been a bit more engaging as an action adventure title. The first thing you would have to do is recast the voice actor of Ethan Mars. Not saying the actor did a bad job, but replacing him with Jean Claude Van Damme would not only add this sense of nostalgic remembrance of such classic films as Bloodspot, KickBoxer, The Quest, and Lionheart, but it would also forgive the laughable delivery of "Jason!" being yelled throughout the mall. We could also have the facial model replaced with live-action footage of Van Damme. All of his high-caliber facial acting would come through in glorious mo-capping a la L.A. Noire. This is a complete win-win situation. The only thing you could do to make it better at this point would be to replace the main bad guy with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Doing this makes Heavy Rain: Van Dammit a game action adventure junkies would be waiting in line for.

By Matt WalkerCCC
Site Director

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*